Merkel unfazed by private Putin-Trump chat at G-20 summit

The Associated Press

Published 12:11 pm, Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Photo: AP Photo/Michael Sohn

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a reception for the round table ‘Women in Culture and Media’ at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, July 17, 2017. Merkel celebrated her 63rd birthday July 17. less

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a reception for the round table ‘Women in Culture and Media’ at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, July 17, 2017. Merkel celebrated her 63rd ... more

Photo: AP Photo/Michael Sohn

Merkel unfazed by private Putin-Trump chat at G-20 summit

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WASHINGTON >> The latest on investigations into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman says the point of a dinner at the Group of 20 summit was to facilitate informal contacts, and the German leader wasn’t “surprised or confused” by anything that happened.

The White House confirmed Tuesday that President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a second, previously undisclosed conversation at the summit in Hamburg on July 7, this one at an evening dinner following a concert.

A foreign affairs columnist who says he spoke with two people who were there said attendees described the meeting as startling.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert wouldn’t comment Wednesday on specific conversations but said the dinner “did, exactly as hoped, produce a lively exchange” between many participants. He said “the chancellor, in any case, was not surprised or confused by anything.”

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4:20 a.m.

A senior Russian lawmaker is dismissing media reports of an undisclosed conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump as sensationalist.

The White House spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed on Wednesday that Trump and Putin spoke at a dinner for world leaders and their spouses at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Trump defended the dinner in a pair of angry tweets late Tuesday, saying it had been on his public schedule.

Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information policy at the upper house of Russian parliament, on Wednesday lashed out at U.S. media for seeking details of “a secret conversation that didn’t happen.”

“They’re sick,” Pushkov said.

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3:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump had another, previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Germany this month.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer and National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton confirmed that Trump and Putin spoke at a dinner for world leaders and their spouses at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The conversation came hours after Trump and Putin’s first official face-to-face meeting on July 7, which was originally scheduled to last just half an hour but stretched on for more than two. The two world leaders were also captured on video shaking hands and exchanging a few words after they arrived at the G-20 summit of industrialized and developing nations earlier that day.

Anton would not specify the duration of the conversation. But he said the discussion was casual and should not be characterized as a “meeting” or even a less formal, but official, “pull-aside.”